“Watch time hours have grown 50% as compared to last year’s, which means people are getting really immersed in YouTube,” said Gail Tan, Google Philippines’ head of communication and public affairs. “That is why we have made it convenient for our creators
artist, graphic designer, fashion designer and published author — is a fairly recent discovery online but has already made her mark.
She is the one responsible for the now- popular wedding song “Home” which was used in Jason Magbanua wedding video for celebrity couple Vic Sotto and Pauleen Luna last year.
More recently, Ms. Lansangan released a music video of her song “Grammar Nazi,” about her pet peeve. She said viewers liked how the music video was executed, noting that it looked like something out of a Wes Anderson film.
She, however, said that she was not really into grand video productions, at least not yet.
“YouTube was such a new thing when I started my account in 2007. I wasn’t attentive to the aesthetics [ because] there weren’t any rules. All were webcam videos in quality,” she said. “Now it has even become means of living for other people.”
With more than 17,000 subscribers on her channel and over a million views, she chose not to delete her old webcam-shot videos.
OPM ADVOCACY
The sole band act that night was Agsunta, composed of Jireh Singson ( vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboard), Mikel Arevalo ( lead guitar, backing vocals), Josh Planas ( bass guitar, backing vocals), and Stephen Arevalo ( drums, percussion, keyboard, backing vocals).
Agsunta is behind # AgsuntaSongRequests and # AgsuntaJamSessions, a series of YouTube videos where the band performs OPM ( original Pilipino music) songs. They said it is a way of promoting the country’s own music.
“There aren’t many bands that do OPM covers here in the Philippines. That’s the music we have grown to, especially because we are ’90s kids, so we chose to do that,” Mr. Singson said.
Two of the band’s members, Mr. Arevalo and Mr. Singson, are students of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde pursuing degrees in Bachelor of Arts in Music Production. It was said that the band was named “Agsunta” in honor of their musical production professor, Agnes Asunta Manalo.
From their start performing at school fairs and bars, they now have more than 37,600 subscribers on their YouTube channel and over 13 million views. They are hoping they would be able to collaborate with other OPM bands like Mayonnaise.
CREATOR HUB
Google Philippines Head of Marketing Gabby Roxas said the songs performed that evening were as “amazing as the stories behind each creator.”
“This may be the first YouTube Jam Night, but I feel like this is not going to be the last,” he said.
Gail Tan, head of communication and public affairs for Google Philippines, said they wanted to focus some attention to their homegrown “creators” for what they have achieved through their videos on YouTube. While a few have already gained thousands of subscribers and garnered millions of views, others are still working their way up.
“Watch time hours have grown 50% as compared to last year’s, which means people are getting really immersed in YouTube,” she said at the event. “That is why we have made it convenient for our creators through YouTube Creator Hub.”
It used to be that these “creators” had to go online and visit a lot of Web sites to find resources they needed for their creations. YouTube has since made it more convenient for them by putting up what amounts to a “one-stop shop,” earning “benefits” depending on the number of subscribers they have, from the Graphite level for those with one to 1,000 subscribers, to Silver and Up for those with 100,000 subscribers and more. The benefits include managing their channels with Creator Studio, learning with Creator Academy, meeting fans on Creator Day, visiting the nearest YouTube Space, redeeming their very own Play Button, among others.
Ms. Tan also said there will also be expanded support for these creators, so when they e- mail YouTube, an actual person will respond and help them grow their channel further.
The YouTube Creator Hub can be accessed through https:// www.youtube.com/ yt/creators/.